Agency Report
11
Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Wednesday, after posting their biggest one-day gain in nearly a year, following President Donald Trump’s comments that suggested an end to the Middle East conflict could be close.
Trump told Reuters that the U.S. would end its war on Iran fairly soon and could return for “spot hits” if needed, hours before he was scheduled to make a primetime address to the nation.
“You have to be extremely careful on how you approach what’s being said, because there’s been a lot of false starts,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.
“When it (the market) gets down to correction levels, he comes out and says these things … And all of a sudden, it blows up on you and you’re back to square one or even worse.”
Meanwhile, Nike (NKE.N), opens new tab slumped 13.5% to a decade low after the sportswear giant forecast a surprise drop in its fourth-quarter sales, limiting gains on the S&P 500 consumer discretionary index (.SPLRCD), opens new tab.
At 10:03 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab rose 313.24 points, or 0.68%, to 46,650.95, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab gained 44.60 points, or 0.68%, to 6,573.12 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab gained 221.30 points, or 1.03%, to 21,811.93.
Technology shares (.SPLRCT), opens new tab continued to rise for a second day, up 1.1%. Chipmakers were among the biggest boosts, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (.SOX), opens new tab adding 3.1%.
Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab gained 7.8% after the company said it would buy back Apollo’s stake in its Ireland factory for $14.2 billion.
Oil prices fell as much as 3% on Wednesday, pulling the S&P 500 energy index (.SPNY), opens new tab down 3.4% to an over one-week low.
Airlines jumped, with the S&P Composite Passenger Airlines sub-index (.SPCOMAIR), opens new tab up 3.2%, and defense stocks staged a recovery, making industrial shares on the S&P 500 (.SPLRCI), opens new tab the biggest percentage gainers.
The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX), opens new tab, Wall Street’s fear gauge, slipped to an over one-week low.
On the data front, ADP’s national employment report showed private payrolls increased steadily in March, while a Commerce Department report showed retail sales in February rose 0.6%, compared with an expected 0.5% rise. March ISM Manufacturing PMI came in at 52.3, in line with estimates.
Nonfarm payroll figures for March will be in focus on Friday, although U.S. markets will be closed for the Good Friday holiday.
Money market participants had priced out any easing from the U.S. Federal Reserve this year after the war outbreak stoked energy-driven inflation fears. They had previously expected two reductions.
St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem said he doesn’t see a near-term need for the U.S. central bank to change its interest rate stance, echoing comments from other policymakers this week.
Among other movers, memory chipmakers gained after Bernstein said the TurboQuant sell-off fears were overdone, sending Micron Technology (MU.O), opens new tab, Sandisk (SNDK.O), opens new tab and Western Digital (WDC.O), opens new tab up between 6% and 9%. Memory stocks sold off last week after Google Research announced TurboQuant, a compression algorithm that it says helps AI systems use much less memory without hurting performance.
Hasbro (HAS.O), opens new tab slipped 3.8% after the toymaker said it was investigating a cybersecurity incident.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.29-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.42-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 4 new 52-week highs and 9 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 39 new highs and 63 new lows.
